BY Women and Hollywood
Watch: Females Are Strong as Hell in ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’-’Mad Max: Fury Road’ Mash-Up
Just when you’d finally gotten the “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” theme song out of your head, here comes a must-see mash-up of Tina Fey’s Netflix series and the “Mad Max: Fury Road” scenes...
Maggie Gyllenhaal Told 37 is “Too Old” To Play a 55-Year-Old’s Love Interest
“There are things that are really disappointing about being an actress in Hollywood that surprise me all the time,” Maggie Gyllenhaal admitted in a new interview with TheWrap. Among...
Trailer Watch: Amy Winehouse Wants to Disappear in First Official Spot for ‘Amy’
“I don’t think I’m going to be at all famous,” predicts Amy Winehouse in the new documentary about her, which has opened to critical acclaim at Cannes 2015. That statement was probably...
Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Harrowing Religious-Repression Drama ‘Mustang’ Gets US Distribution Deal
The Turkish drama “Mustang,” which debuted to ecstatic reviews at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, has been acquired by the Cohen Media Group. The Directors’ Fortnight selection focuses on a...
New Arab Women Filmmakers Scholarship at UCLA Film School Announced
A new initiative to “give voice to the unique perspective of Arab women” has been launched as a partnership between the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT) and the...
Quote of the Day: Gina Prince-Bythewood Supports ACLU Action, Declares “Talent Has No Gender”
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Beyond the Lights,” “The Secret Life of Bees”) has released a statement voicing her support of the ACLU’s request for the government to investigate sexist...
Shonda Rhimes and Jenji Kohan Win Global Women’s Rights Awards
Shonda Rhimes and Jenji Kohan were recognized for “changing the face of media” by the Feminist Majority Foundation at the 10th annual Global Women’s Rights Awards on Monday. Rhimes and Kohan...
Kristen Schaal Sells Animated Comedy Pilot ‘Fancy Bastards’ to MTV
One of the busiest women in TV might finally get her own show. Kristen Schaal — who appears on the Fox comedy “Last Man on Earth,” voices the Fox animated sitcom “Bob’s Burgers” and...
Producers Wanted Emily Blunt’s Character in “Sicario” to Be a Man
Emily Blunt has found critical success (if not quite blockbuster megabucks) in action flicks like “Looper” and “Edge of Tomorrow.” But she almost got shut out of the crime thriller...
Ellen Page and Allison Janney to Star in Baby-Kidnapping Dramedy ‘Tallulah’
Here’s a story you haven’t heard before: A free spirit rescues a baby from her negligent mother, leading everyone to think she’s kidnapped the infant. She passes the baby off as her own around...
Melissa McCarthy Gets Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, Calls Industry Sexism “An Intense Sickness”
Two weeks before the release of “Spy,” her latest comedy, Melissa McCarthy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At the ceremony, she thanked her parents’ steadfast support for...
Cannes 2015: Gender-Policing the Red Carpet
Cannes is like an alternate universe. At 9am yesterday morning, I went to see a fantastic movie called “Mustang” by a woman director named Deniz Gamze Erguven. It is about five sisters in a...
Natalie Portman on the “Vanity” of Women’s Movies (Bonus: Watch a Clip from Her Directorial Debut)
“I had wanted to direct for as long as I can remember,” recalled Natalie Portman in a Cannes interview to promote her first film, “A Tale of Love and Darkness.” But the Oscar-winning was...
Jane Fonda and Megan Ellison Receive Kering’s Inaugural Women in Motion Awards
Jane Fonda and Annapurna Pictures founder Megan Ellison received the inaugural Women in Motion award from Kering at a gala held Sunday in Cannes. Both women delivered acceptance speeches that...
“Happy Valley” Creator Sally Wainwright to Write and Direct BBC Film About Brontë Sisters
Veteran British TV writer Sally Wainwright will make her feature directorial debut with a two-hour BBC1 drama about the Brontë sisters. “To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters” will center on a...
Alice Winocour’s ‘Disorder (Maryland),’ Starring Diane Kruger, Acquired by Sundance Selects
Following its world-premiere screening at the Cannes Film Festival, French writer-director Alice Winocour’s “Disorder (Maryland)” was acquired by Sundance Selects. The Un Certain Regard...
Trailer Watch: Pioneering DJ Can’t Stay in ‘Eden’ Forever in Mia Hansen-Løve’s Latest
“I’ll be a DJ. I’ll be rich.” The trailer for Mia Hansen-Løve’s followup to 2011’s “Goodbye First Love” begins with this bold pronouncement from Paul, an ambitious and talented DJ...
Cannes 2015 Women Directors: Meet Chloé Zhao — ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’
Chloé Zhao was raised in Beijing and England and is currently a MFA thesis student at New York University’s graduate film program. She was selected as a fellow at the 2012 Sundance Directors and...
Cannes Deals: Catherine Hardwicke, Marjane Satrapi, Elle Fanning’s Transgender Movie and More
The Cannes Film Festival is about more than the prestige associated with winning the Palme d’Or or the glitz, glamour and couture of the red carpet — the festival is also a hub of wheeling...
May 2015’s Noteworthy Women-Centric Crowdfunding Projects
Last month, we at Women and Hollywood started a new feature spotlighting women-centric crowdfunding projects that we feel deserve attention and support. This month’s crowdfunding selections vary...
Jill Soloway Encourages Women Directors to “Storm the Gates”
“Transparent” creator Jill Soloway delivered a powerful keynote address to outgoing and incoming students of the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women, calling for nothing short of a...
All-Female Shortlist Announced for Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction
The shortlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction has been announced, and all three nominated novelists are women. The £10,000 ($15,700 USD) literary prize is awarded to the best debut...
‘Pitch Perfect 2’ Tops Weekend Box Office, Grosses $107.5 Million in Three Days
Based on this weekend’s box-office tallies, “Pitch Perfect 3.” is definitely happening now. Disproving all the idiots out there who say that audiences won’t watch movies about women and...
The Power and Relevance of ‘Carol’
In a few short weeks, the Supreme Court of the United States will decide on the issue of gay marriage once and for all. Over here at the Cannes Film Festival, “Carol,” based on Patricia...
Oops! I Made a Feminist Manifesto: George Miller and “Mad Max”
It’s been three days since I saw “Mad Max: Fury Road” and I still can’t shut up about how phenomenal it was. I often think of this Onion article when attempting to reconcile my love of...
Salma Hayek Drops Truth Bombs About Hollywood’s Gender Problem
Salma Hayek is my new heroine. This morning at the Kering Talks (Kering is a sponsor of the festival and Hayek’s husband François-Henri Pinault is the CEO) this woman dropped epic truth bombs for...
Weekly Update for May 15: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Mad Max: Fury Road — Women-Centric Pick of the Week This post-apocalyptic feminist action-adventure story features Charlize Theron in her most kick-ass role...
Watch: Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara Begin a Love Affair in ‘Carol’ Clips
Two clips from “Carol,” Todd Haynes’ much anticipated adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith lesbian romance “The Price of Salt,” have been released. The two excerpts find confident and...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Ethan Hawke Speaks Out Against “Movie Business [Being] a Boys Club”
During a press tour for his latest film, Ethan Hawke spoke out against the “boys club” that runs Hollywood. Feminism appears to have little to do with the thriller “Good Kill,” but when...
Remembering Lois Weber, Early Hollywood’s Most Successful Woman Director
Last month, Vanity Fair ran a piece on women directors that claimed that “the feisty Ida Lupino was one of thefirst.” They were only off by fifty years. They forgot — or never...
Director Amy Berg on ‘Every Secret Thing,’ Her New Nicole Holofcener-Penned Thriller
Amy Berg is a critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her documentary “Deliver Us From Evil” (2006). The film...
Quote of the Day: Cate Blanchett on the Difficulty and Importance of Making Movies About Women
Todd Haynes’ lesbian romance “Carol” is on many a must-see list — including Women and Hollywood’s — but the journey of making and releasing the Cate Blanchett/Rooney Mara drama...
Megan Ellison’s ‘20th Century Women’ to Star Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning
Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning will star in the cross-generational drama “20th Century Women.” Set in California in the late ’70s, the film finds three women — a single...
Natalie Portman to Play Jackie Kennedy as a Grieving Widow
Just days after announcing that she’d play Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Natalie Portman divulged that she’d embody another American icon: former First Lady Jackie Kennedy....
Watch: Samantha Bee is “Female as F-ck” and Crashing the Sausage Party That is Late-Night TV
Samantha Bee, the longest-serving correspondent ever on “The Daily Show,” took herself out of consideration for the role of Jon Stewart’s replacement to front her own show on TBS. Alongside...
Spellbinding Teen Classic ‘The Craft’ to Be Remade, Leigh Janiak to Direct and Co-Write
Now would be a wise time to invest stock in Hot Topic. The news that Sony is remaking “The Craft,” the 1996 supernatural thriller about badass teen witches with angst and attitude to spare...
Noomi Rapace to Play Maria Callas in Niki Caro’s Biopic
Noomi Rapace has been confirmed to star in “Callas,” director Niki Caro’s biopic of opera legend Maria Callas. It will focus on the soprano’s two-year relationship with billionaire Aristotle...
Fall TV and Feminism: A First Look at the Upfronts
Trailer Watch: Anne Hathaway’s the Boss in Nancy Meyers’ ‘The Intern’
Anne Hathaway got on Hollywood’s A-list after starring as a recent college grad scrambling to make sense of the world of couture — and the Anna Wintour-like woman who makes its gears...
A Critical Moment for the DGA: Will They Stand Up for Women?
What I am about to say is not going to make me any friends at the DGA, but it has to be said: The Guild is part of the problem, not the solution. Women directors’ underemployment is not all their...
Cannes 2015 Dispatch #1: This Place is Insane (in a Good Way)
I arrived in Cannes yesterday. After getting my bearings (or doing my best to do so), I was able to make it to a press screening for the festival’s opening film, “Standing Tall.” I so admire...
Cannes 2015 Women Directors: Meet Nancy Buirski — ‘By Sidney Lumet’
Nancy Buirski is the director, producer and writer of “Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq,” which had its world premiere at the 51stNew York Film Festival and its international premiere at...
Trailer Watch: ‘Jem and the Holograms’ Generate Showtime Synergy
The beloved ’80s animated series “Jem and the Holograms” is being adapted for the big screen, and a newly released trailer for the live-action film gives us a sense of what changes to expect...
Reese Witherspoon to Star as Astronaut in ‘Pale Blue Dot’
Reese Witherspoon is following in Sandra Bullock’s steps and heading into space. In “Pale Blue Dot,” the Oscar-winning actress will play an astronaut who finds herself a million miles from...
Quote of the Day: Kathryn Bigelow on the “Horrific Situation for Women Directors”
The first and only woman to win a Best Director Oscar in the 87-year history of the Academy Awards has spoken out against the rampant sexism that plagues Hollywood. Kathryn Bigelow released a...
Ava DuVernay in the Running to Direct a Marvel Movie
One month after DC hired Patty Jenkins to helm the Wonder Woman movie, rival comics emporium Marvel has revealed that it’s pursuing Ava DuVernay to direct one of their “diversity” pictures,...
23 Years in the Making, HBO’s ‘Bessie’ is the Culmination of Queen Latifah’s Success
It seems as though Queen Latifah was destined to play Bessie Smith. The singer-turned-actress was first approached with the role at just 22 years old, then still in the midst of her rap career. Back...
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin Go Public About Their Unfair ‘Grace and Frankie’ Paychecks
Equal work should receive equal pay, while more work should receive more pay, right? Apparently no such logic exists at Netflix HQ. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, who star in the new streaming series...
Infographic: Celebrating Women Directors at Cannes 2015
Today is the kick off of the Cannes Film Festival. While we are still unbelievably unsatisfied at the amount of female directors in the main competition and other areas, there is still so much to...
Kirsten Dunst to Star in Rodarte Designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s Directorial Debut
Kirsten Dunst is set to star in the directorial debut of Kate and Laura Mulleavy, better known as the founders and designers of the LA-based fashion label Rodarte. Thus far, the Mulleavy...
Charlize Theron’s Spy Thriller ‘The Coldest City’ Acquired by Focus
Spy movies usually revolve around leading men — hello, Mr. Bond — but Charlize Theron is about to enter the ranks of double-crossers and secret-identity-havers. Deadline reports that...